


Rain

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Crimson Flower Route, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Skinny Dipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24703390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: Byleth teaches Edelgard how to swim.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 58





	Rain

**Author's Note:**

> I skinnydipped for the first time recently and wanted to write about it lol

Five years.  _ Five years, _ Edelgard says to Byleth. Five years Byleth was gone and everyone else grew up. Five years of students calling out for their mentor, and having nothing to comfort them. But to Byleth? It was yesterday, and Byleth is supposed to be in battle but apparently the war has slowed to a crawl in their absence.

Byleth swims in the pond behind Garreg Mach and Edelgard watches from the dock, wrapped in a commoner’s brown tunic. Edelgard leans her cheek to her knee and though she looks at Byleth, her eyes are glazed over.

This is confusing. Though it’s never been said, Byleth loves Edelgard and Byleth knows Edelgard loves them. The two aren’t dating but they  _ are _ partners. It feels like only when the war ends can they be together. But given their mutual affection, Byleth kinda figures Edelgard would at least be overjoyed at her teacher’s miraculous return but instead she is so dour.

Working up some courage — a thing that’s hard to do nowadays without a literal loudmouth Goddess in their mind wingmanning for them — Byleth dogpaddles over to Edelgard and grabs onto the dock. “El.”

This gets Edelgard’s attention. She looks like she’s waking up from a nap. “Yes, my teacher?”

Byleth frowns. “What’s wrong?”

Edelgard gives Byleth a long hard look before turning towards the moon. “My father passed away a moon ago. Shortly before you returned to us.”

“Ah,” Byleth says, thinking hard. “That oughta do it.”

Edelgard’s perpetual frown briefly peels back for a smirk, before she returns to being dour. “Yes, I had to skip the funeral service since Rhea found it appropriate to attack Garreg Mach again. She probably assumed I’d be in Enbarr, mourning. But you know me.” She shakes her head wistfully, flashing some of her pressed together teeth with some restraint. “I don’t think she understands what this war is even about, if I can be honest.”

Byleth reaches up and takes Edelgard’s wrist. “Let’s not discuss the war. Come with me.”

Edelgard eyes the water carefully. “I’d rather not. I thought I told you, I don’t know how to swim.”

“It’s shallow enough,” Byleth urges. “Do you think Seteth would have allowed a pond to be built here if there was a lawsuit waiting to happen?”

Edelgard purses her lips, running out of excuses. “There’s fish.”

Byleth shrugs. “Yeah. But I don’t think anyone will mistake us for fish.”

Not quite what Edelgard meant probably, she simmers.

Then Edelgard sighs, and gently peels off one of her stockings. She slides forward, dipping her foo into the water, visibly wincing at the cold.

“You’ll get used to it, just flop in, it’s easier,” Byleth says.

“Flop?”

“Yeah — ” Byleth grins, throwing themselves back, kicking up a torrent of water with the back of their head. They scrunch into a ball and do a little somersault, popping back up with their baggy peasant shirt stuck to their chest. “ — _ flop. _ ”

Edelgard rolls her eyes. “If I must.”

For the next few minutes, Byleth carefully teaches Edelgard how to swim. It’s nice. They get to stay close to her and support her limbs. As expected, Edelgard picks up on the techniques easily enough and shifts into a breaststroke. 

“It’s alright,” Edelgard says as if she just ate a particularly mediocre pasta salad. “I expected this to feel more elegant, if I can be honest.”

Byleth sighs. “That’s because you’re not naked, El.”

Edelgard raises an eyebrow and looks back to Byleth, their cheeks lighting up red. “Um, yes, I—I suppose I’m not—Professor! Wh-what are you doing?!”

Byleth has already removed their shirt and thrown in it to the dock, their bare chest hitting the cool night air. Edelgard immediately dives on top of them, shoving them chin deep into the water. 

“People can see us!” Edelgard pleads. “Besides, it would be weird if it was just you naked and — ”

“So take your clothes off,” Byleth chirps, slipping out of Edelgard’s grasp and popping up behind them. They raise their legs and make short work of their bottoms, flinging those in some random direction. 

Edelgard doesn’t say anything, though she does look away towards the greenhouse. “No! Professor, um, oh goodness…”

“So puritan for a girl who hates the Church,” Byleth flashes their teeth. Gently, they walk across the stone floor to the pond and gently take Edelgard by the shoulders from behind. “I know why you don’t want to, it’s the scars. I’m just kidding.”

From behind, Byleth sees Edelgard’s chin bob down and then back up. “Yes. Scars. I… I don’t know what we’re doing.”

Byleth nods. “I know.”

Edelgard lowers her head but doesn’t say anything, infact, it feels like she’s leaning into Byleth’s touch. 

“The clothes hide a lot of our feeling, it’s numbing. You’ll be numb after a few minutes fully in the cold, but you’ll like the first part, I promise. I won’t look. Uh, at whatever your decision is.” They back away and tilt into a breaststroke pushing them away.

* * *

Edelgard feels like such a fool taking her clothes off in the water. She thinks it has something to do with how her tunic sticks to her skin and refuses to pull away. The pants are the worst part, because she has to swing her leg high to take them off and almost fully tumbles over like a klutz. She doesn’t know how Byleth did it so swiftly.

Edelgard doesn’t even want to swim nude, she just wants Byleth to like them and just generally be impressed by them. Besides, she trusts Byleth not to look no matter the outcome. 

She sets her clothes in a pile next to Byleth’s shirt, her hips a hair above the surface. She looks back out and closes her eyes. It’s quiet, very quiet. Quieter than every other space in her life. She takes a step forward, her toes curling against the rough stones at the bottom. She dips lower and the water licks against her groin. It’s definitely… different than it was with the pants. It feels so… raw? She feels the water, she feels a lot more alive. It sends a jolt to her whole body. Her eyes open and she’s there.

Wincing, Edelgard lurches forward and  _ flops _ like Byleth suggested, and resurfaces, spitting a mouthful of water back into the pond. She takes one stroke forward and feels the water she treads through back flow through her body. It tickles almost, but wow, she feels every inch of her flesh. Edelgard feels her legs lift and she feels smooth, like a child. There’s something innocent to it, swimming like this. 

Edelgard almost wants it to last forever, and it’s only been a few seconds.

Her scars, her forgotten scars she never dares to look at,  _ breathe _ at the exposure. Fearless, like she feels like she doesn’t need to hide anything anymore. The scars thank her, and considering the vast network of scars all over her body, it’s an overwhelming sensation of gratitude. Edelgard gasps, and takes another stroke.

“I’m proud of you,” Byleth calls out.

Edelgard smiles to herself and kicks closer. The water is nearly black under the night sky, Byleth probably won’t be able to see anything below Edelgard’s shoulders, so she chances it. She gets closer and tries to do this thing Byleth calls  _ wading _ , but ends up kicking up and down erratically and taking in several more mouthfuls of water. Not very attractive or empowering.

Byleth takes Edelgard by the small of her back and gently guides her to the side of the pond. Byleth throws their arms over the edge and turns around, letting their legs slowly rise towards the surface. Edelgard just kinda turns around and lets herself float into a fetal position almost, ankles hooking across each other, knees together. 

Edelgard is strong, her body ripples with muscles but here, the faint image of her white body below the black surface is smooth. She feels small, but almost in a secure way. She feels safe next to Byleth at least. “This is nice,” she says, rasping from all the water she swallowed.

“Mhm,” Byleth chirps. “Back when it was just me and Dad, we bathed in ponds and stuff all the time. Ever since I got here, I’ve had my eyes on this pond but with Seteth lurking around… you know, Manuela, Hanneman and I had a plan to skinnydip here when school was over and you all went home.”

Edelgard raises an eyebrow. “Did you have a plan on how to get Seteth away?”

“Yeah, Alois was going to be the distraction,” Byleth explains, throwing their head back. “But then you had to go off and start a war.” They cheekily splash Edelgard’s cheek.

She grins. No one else is this playful with her. Not to the Emperor with a heart of ice. 

“Well, the three of them are on our side now and there’s no Seteth around…” Edelgard tries to purr in an alluring way, but it doesn’t work. 

“No, Hanneman and Manuela are dating now, it’d be weird,” Byleth shakes their head. “Alois also won’t let us do it now unless we give him a special mission to distract someone.”

“He could distract me?” Edelgard looks over to Byleth.

Byleth frowns. “It’s not that serious, El.”

“Oh,” Edelgard sighs. It is very cold now, she gets what Byleth was saying about the thrill of the nudity fading fast. “Sorry.”

“You’re fine,” Byleth grins. “You feeling better?”

“I think so,” Edelgard says, “I miss my father very much. I wish you got to spend more time with him, he always liked meeting my friends and just listening to them talk to me. Except Hubert since he’s all…”

“...murdery?”

“Something like that, yes,” Edelgard admits. “But we always knew he wasn’t going to last very long, not in his health. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m more frustrated that Rhea was petty enough to line up an attack in wake of his death. It feels like she hates me more than what I represent.”

Byleth nods. “Do you hate Rhea?”

“More than Crests? Certainly not,” Edelgard hooks her arms onto the lip of the pond and carries herself onto the stone. The rock is bumpy, and not pleasant to her skin but she’d like to give her skin some time to dry off, and she’s positive no one is assigned to check in on this area for at least another hour. Maybe she should fix that in her guard rotation but for now, she’ll take advantage of it.

She knows this means that Byleth can see her scars, but that’s okay. That’s been inevitable. 

Thankfully, Byleth doesn’t say anything when they crane their neck back. They do take the hint to get out of the water themselves, and are kind enough to give Edelgard some space.

“I guess if Rhea understood what I represented, she wouldn’t be at war with me,” Edelgard sighs. “Thank you, Professor. This swim was…” Her emotions are so high, but she can’t think of a word. Her heart pounds in such a physical way, but still she can’t find the right word. “...pleasureable,” she sighs. “In ways I’m failing to find the words.”

“It’s pretty fun with friends,” Byleth says plainly. “Petra, Dorothea, and Caspar would be down too, I bet.”

Edelgard smiles. “That’s a little fast for me, for now I’d like it to just be us two. I’m not used to being this open.” She dares to raise her thigh from the stone and sidles next to Byleth, pressing her body against them. Though sopping wet, Byleth radiates warmth that they probably can’t feel for themselves. Edelgard hopes her body can do the same for Byleth. 

“Thank you, Professor.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


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